給大家推薦一個英語節奏的網站。。

來源: 於 2015-07-16 17:07:15 [博客] [舊帖] [給我悄悄話] 本文已被閱讀：次

最近又開始學糾音。這是一個很好的網站：http://www.elementalenglish.com/rhythm-in-speech/
比如，這裏我印象深刻的是“I HAVE to Go to  School."在沒有學習之前，我一直把“I”也重讀，結果就是典型的中式英語的語調，但是隻重讀“HAVE”而不重讀“I”之後，聽著就地道多了。。
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Many students think that learning English is about learning grammar, consonants, vowels, and vocabulary. These form the basic foundation of a language, however, if you want to be understood when speaking American English, and if you want to understand native speakers, it is essential that you improve your stress and rhythm.

Stress

Stressing means that speakers of English make certain syllables and words:

  • louder 
  • longer
  • higher in pitch

Basically, stressing means to emphasize a sound. Every word in English has just one syllable with a primary stress or emphasis. 

However, it is not only essential to stress certain syllables and words, but we must also de-stress other syllables and words.

De-stressing means that speakers of English make certain syllables and words:

  • more relaxed
  • weaker

Examples | Listen & Repeat

  • Engineer –> [en g? NEER] (2nd syllable is de-stressed; 3rd syllable is stressed)
  • English –> [ING glish] (1st syllable is stressed; 2nd syllable is slightly de-stressed)
  • Photograph –> [PHO d? graf] (1st syllable is stressed, 2nd syllable de-stressed, 3rd syllable is secondary stress)

Stressing and de-stressing syllables and words gives us rhythm in English.

Rhythm

Rhythm is the musicality of English–the ups and downs and the connected speech and the linking of words, which together, change how we say sentences.

Remember, speaking with correct rhythm (musicality) is essential to being understood when you speak!

Rhythm comes from the combination of the two types of stress in American English:

1) Syllable stress in words (as discussed above)

2) Word stress in sentences

 

Word stress in sentences

Americans stress words in sentences that are important to the meaning of the sentence. They carry the content of the sentence. Basically, if you took these content words out of the sentence, you would not understand the meaning of that sentence.

Content Words

  • main verbs
  • nouns
  • adjectives
  • adverbs
  • negatives
  • wh-words
  • interjections

Examples | Listen & Repeat

  • I HAVE to GO to SCHOOL.
  • I WANT my BROTHER to WIN.
  • It’s NOT the BEST IDEA.

 

Function Words

Remember, rhythm and musicality in your speech is not just about stressing, but also requires de-stressing, weakening.
 
In English we de-stress the non-essential, non-content words in a sentence, called the function words. These function words are made weaker, and sometimes practically disappear from a sentence.
 
Function words include: 

Listen and Repeat

(Function words written in lower case)

  • I HAVE to GO to SCHOOL.
  • I WANT my BROTHER to WIN.
  • It’s NOT the BEST IDEA.
Notice, I did NOT say, “I HAVE TO GO TO SCHOOL”, but I said “I HAVE to GO to SCHOOL” [ay HAV t’GOW t’SKOOL].
 
I said the function words quicker and more relaxed than the important content words. They almost become part of the content words that follow them [t’GOW; t’SKOOL].
 
If I left out the non-essential function words from my sentences, you would still understand the general idea of what I’m saying.

Examples

    • *HAVE GO SCHOOL
    • *WANT BROTHER WIN
    • *NOT BEST IDEA

In fact, we hear children speak like this all the time when they’re learning to speak English, and we still understand their basic messages.

Listen and Repeat

  • “She WANTS to PLAY a GAME.”
  • “I’d LIKE you to JOIN us for DINner.”
  • “We’ll CHOOSE the WINner on SATurday or SUNday.”
  • “MAny of the STUdents are GOing on vaCAtion  toMOrrow.”



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